The northern Black Sea coast and its hinterland remain extraordinarily peaceful. There are fine beaches and sand dunes all along the coast where there is space and freedom, such as in Tyulenovo and Krapets. Here there is no unwanted electronic music, just the gentle tideless sea, ships sailing across a sparkling ocean and acres of sand. The summer sun is reliable, the beaches are clean and the pace of life is slow.

Explore the countryside on a bike, stretch out on the sand and luxuriate in the crystal clear water. After your swim, pedal on to the cafes at Cape Kaliakra, or the strand at Kavarna or Balchik for a meal, then call for an inexpensive taxi to take you home.

A short off-road bike on un-metalled tracks brings you to the Cape Kaliakra Meadows Nature Reserve. The 1700 acres of unimproved limestone grassland stretch to the eastern and western horizon, and south to the sea at the Cape. Nowhere else in Europe is there a show like this, nor such an expanse of unspoiled natural landscape of this type.

Here the wild flowers of spring and summer shine in the sun and there are many rarities such as gentians, lilies, irises, orchids. It is the sheer quantity which is so exciting, and to walk and picnic amongst them is to experience the variety and tranquillity of the countryside of by-gone centuries.

The Black Sea coast is on the major bird migration route known as the Via Pontica, and in spring and autumn, concentrations of thousands of soaring birds can be seen over the Cape. The list of species, as well as their numbers, is impressive. Eagles, buzzards, falcons, storks, cranes and pelicans in their thousands and many others nesting and resting in the grassland, or on the nearby cliffs like the resident Eagle Owls.

To the north are a number of important wetland nature reserves where there are nesting waders, and in winter there are huge concentrations of wildfowl which feed widely on the extensive farmland. For the more adventurous, Romania with its world famous Danube delta, is half an hour away, join a wildlife photography group or travel further to the mountains to see bears.